August/September 1991, Page 5

Letters To (and From) The Editors

Find Common Ground Between Enemies

I received the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs from my dear friend, Thomas Thompson, vice-president of Columbia Artists Management. I read several of the articles with great interest. It is such a tragedy that human beings are made to become as polarized as their thoughts and their actions. We have not yet resolved the great problem of common ground between enemies. Jesus's admonition to turn the other cheek is still the most effective but, unfortunately, rarely invoked retaliation or response. With all good wishes.

Yehudi Menuhin, London, England

Courageous Bishop Vache

Your July 1991 story on Bishop Vaché's effort to tie US aid to Israel to its observance of its human rights obligations to the Palestinians has restored some confidence in me that the church in the US can be turned around and made to face squarely its moral obligations, at least in Palestine. What a beautiful, moral and courageous man is Bishop Vaché! It has also occurred to me that many ministers in this country could be prodded into facing their moral responsibilities and helped to acquire the dose of courage necessary to emulate Bishop Vaché. If so, and if you think it feasible through this letter on the pages of the Washington Report, we can invite readers to contribute toward preparing and mailing copies of this story to several thousand ministers in the US and Canada. The first contribution will reach you from me for $300.

Ramsey H. Madany, Phoeniz, AZ

We'll spend the money as directed when it arrives. Readers. have a standing invitation to donate subscriptions at the $7.50 opinion molder rate to clergy of their choice. If so requested, we'll start them with the July 1991 issue containing Bishop Vache's story.

Let's Keep in Touch

I will shortly be leaving my post as the ambassador of Lebanon to the United States to assume my new duties as a member of the Lebanese Parliament. I am greatly interested in keeping in touch with your organization and its activities by regularly receiving your magazine and any publications you put out.

Nassib Lahoud, Beirut, Lebanon

Thanks for Publicizing Packwood's Pandering

After reading Parker L. Payson's report on Senator Packwood ("Packwood Raising 95 Percent of Re-election Funds Outside Oregon"-July 1991 issue) I lost my usual calm, pleasant, charming personality and sent him a letter expressing my displeasure for his pandering to that recalcitrant state of Israel. Included was a copy of your report on AIPAC contributions to senators and several photos I had taken of the atrocities committed by the Israeli army and secret police in the occupied territories. Your magazine has been invaluable in providing information needed to fight the injustice I have seen in the Middle East.

Robert A. Hay, Richmond, VA

What our readers do with the information we provide is what makes us useful. Thanks.

The Raschka Report

I have just finished reading Marilyn Raschka's excellent report from Lebanon in the Washington Report. As a former resident of Beirut, I am pleased and hopeful that finally this war is coming to a close. My parents were stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for many years and Beirut was our favorite retreat. Sadly, by 1978 and 1979 traveling to Beirut became a problem and we were unable to return. I look forward to returning with my wife and son, and know a number of Lebanese students who long for the return of a peaceful life back home. At the end of the article I saw that Ms. Raschka is the editor of the newsletter of Americans for Justice in the Middle East. I subscribe to as many periodicals as possible on the Middle East, and I would like to know more about that organization.

Kevin Murphy, Acworth, GA

AJME is a non-profit organization whose newsletter goes to members. Membership fees are $15 per year and checks may be sent to the US representative: Mrs. Richard Scott, 226 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, PA 17325; or, in Lebanon, to AJME, P. 0 Box 113-5581, Beirut.

How to Promote Justice for Arabs?

My wife and I have visited the West Bank and Gaza. She returned recently; my trip was in April 1988. We would like to do what we can to promote a US Middle East policy that is concerned with justice for the Palestinians as well as other Arabs in the region. If your organization can provide guidance and wisdom in such an endeavor, we would appreciate receiving information from, you.

James R. Potter, Chicago, IL

We try to provide information individuals and groups need for informed, effective action in the US and Canada. In most issues of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, we also suggest specific actions individuals might take. See the last paragraphs headlined "Make a difference—this month, " on the "Publishers' Page, " normally the last page of text in each issue.

Did or Didn't Tunisia Condemn Iraq?

In your July issue there appeared the following sentences in a profile of the Tunisian ambassador to the United States: "Ambassador Khelil hardly flaunts his credentials, but does not shy away from using them to make a point. In a recent speaking engagement in Washington, he refuted the notion that Tunisia had abstained in the Aug. 3 Arab League vote denouncing Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. "

Ambassador Khelil goes on to say: "Some in the media seem convinced that we abstained. I am in a position to know that it was not the case. It was I who cast Tunisia's vote."

As far as I am aware, Tunisia did indeed abstain from that vote.

Anonymous

We don't usually print anonymous letters, but there seems to be confusion here. Some media accounts do record Tunisia as having abstained. We checked with Ambassador Khelil, who informed us: "Tunisia was among the first nations to support the Arab League resolution that condemned the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. "

He also confirmed that he was in Cairo, attended the Aug. 3 meeting at the Arab League, and cast Tunisia's vote in support of the Arab League resolution.

Why Are You Endorsing Bush-Baker?

Why are you endorsing the Bush/Baker "Peace Plan"? According to what I've read in the leftist press (i.e., articles by Alexander Cockburn and Noam Chomsky), the three central premises of this plan are: (1) there can be no "additional Palestinian state" (since this state supposedly exists in Jordan); (2) the Palestinians are not to be permitted their own representatives (i.e., the PLO); and (3) no change in the status of "Judea, Samaria" and Gaza other than in accordance with the basic guidelines of the government of Israel. What are these "guidelines"? According to Shamir in a speech in April: "We will continue to build there. This is an issue that has no relation to the negotiations between us and the Arab states ... This is an internal affair." What are the Palestinians being offered? "Free elections" under Israeli military occupation. I look forward to your answer. In general I like your magazine a lot and read it from cover to cover.

Jacquie Moon, Portland, OR

Let's let the US government speak for itself. All manner of disinformation has been floated in the Israeli press, particularly the Jerusalem Post, which has been taken over lock, stock and barrel by hard-line Likud supporters. There is nothing that would have suited the Likud more than to have more Arab states, like Syria, initially refuse to come to a peace conference. A failure of the administration's "peace process " then could be pinned at least partially on the Arabs, instead of on Shamir's intransigence. If, finally, your dire suspicions that Bush and Baker have caved in to Israel are true, then we'll be cheering on the Bush bashers and Baker baiters. First, however, let's give them a chance to support, or at least not obstruct, some UN resolutions protecting Palestinians and condemning the illegal occupation of their lands. We think Bush is toying with the idea, but he won't do it if we all give up on him in advance.

Spotlight on Kashmir

Thank you from the Kashmiri-American community here in America and in Kashmir for highlighting Kashmir on the cover of your July 1991 issue. It is extremely tragic and unfortunate that what India is doing in Kashmir is against its own pledges and promises as given to Kashmiris, the United Nations and the world community. The perpetual atrocities committed by the occupation forces are also against India's own stated principles.

Dr. A.M. Khajawall, Kashmiri-American Council, 1538 S. Sunbluff Dr., Diamond Bar, CA 91765

Dr. Khajawall submitted with his letter a SIX-page diplomatic history of the Kashmir problem as well as a list of 1991 press reports on the dispute. He invites readers wishing is or other relevant information to contact him at the address above or by telephone (714) 860-8444 or FAX (714) 861-4211.

How Can I Help?

As I continue my efforts to provide humanitarian relief for Palestinians who live in the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza, I thought you would be interested in the enclosures, which are self-explanatory. If I can be of any other assistance to you, you have only to let me know.

Representative Nick J. Rahall, II (D-NW)

We've reported your effort to get for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom literally are starving, at least a tiny fraction of the assistance the special interests are extracting on behalf of an aid-bloated Israel We know there are no PAC dollars for those Who help the Palestinians. There may be some decent people who will remember your selfless efforts when next you stand for re-election, however. We hope so, because we suspect AIPAC will be scouring West Virginia, again, to find and fund another opponent to run against you. On Middle East questions, you are one of only a handful in Congress who redeem the honor of your fellow Americans.

Listening to the People

Could we readers please have some future reports on how the typical Arab-man-in-the street feels about Arab and world issues? The various reports of your travels to the Middle East and the interviews you have held there seem to focus on present or former Arab government officials, business people or diplomats, those who make up the upper echelon of Arab society. The media, in general, have ignored the huge mass of Arabs who, if sufficiently aroused, could easily topple any government with which our government has been dealing.

Ruth Elizabeth Ramsey, Epworth, GA

We think you'll like Andrea Lorenz's interview with young Iraqis on page 33.

Write Us. We're Assyrian!

Thank you for publishing my letter, "Sanctions Against Iraq," in a previous issue. Enclosed is a Washington newsletter published by the Assyrian National Congress, which has offices at 1718 M St., NW, Suite 206, Washington, DC 20036.

Francis E. Hoyen, Jr., Worcester, MA

The enclosure invites interested readers to write to the address above for further information regarding the Assyrian National Congress' Political Action Committee.

It's Exile, Not Deportation

I agree with your writer George Moses on the importance of accurate terminology. Deportation refers to the legal expulsion by a government of foreigners within that country's borders. Palestinians are not being "deported" from a foreign country. Rather, they are forcibly and illegally exiled from their homeland and their own country.

Margaret Schulenberg, Austin, TX

Can You Update Stealth PACs?

The tables in Stealth PACs: How Israel's American Lobby Seeks to Control US Middle East Policy, only go to 1988. Do you have updated tables available, or can you put me in touch with a source where I can obtain this information?

Prof. Frederick H. Ratzeburg, Keizer, OR

The third edition of Stealth PACs covers pro-Israel PAC contributions through the 1990 campaign cycle. The tables are completed but we have delayed publication to incorporate as much information as possible about campaign finance reform measures under consideration by Congress in mid-1991. Copies should be available from AET immediately after Congress does or doesn't do its thing, or by October at the latest.

Unspeakable Thoughts About Zionism

Among the many excellent articles and letters I have seen in the Washington Report, one of the most thought-provoking was a letter by a Jewish lady, Toba Singer, in the "Other People's Mail" section of the July 1989 issue.

She wrote that her father had warned her not to trust Zionists. He believed that Zionism had its origins in the "drawing rooms and counting houses of the Hohenzollerns and not in the Warsaw Ghetto."

Counting houses? What he seems to suggest was that the main purpose of Zionism was not to provide a haven for homeless or persecuted Jews but rather simply to make money. One's first reaction to this view tends to be disbelief, but when one considers that Congress has been induced to give Israel over $8 million daily, that Israel is an important arms manufacturer and trader, having, for example, provided arms and training to both sides in the civil war in Sri Lanka (see By Way of Deception by Victor Ostrovsky), and that Israelis are heavily involved in drug dealing in Central and South America, the thesis becomes all too believable.

Frank Regier, Strongsville, OH

Writers for this magazine have many different views of Zionism. The executive editor sees Zionism as a well-intentioned 19th- and early-20th-century attempt to deal with the real problem that led to the incomprehensible horrors of the European death camps. Zionism as practiced in Israel, however, has become as tragically wrong as the other exclusivist political (and/or religious) philosophies that we lump under the term 'fiascism. " (See Dr. Israel Shahak's article on page 23 of this issue.) We understand that you, as one of America's first "forgotten hostages," held for a long period under unspeakable conditions in Beirut, are searching for the cause of the chain reaction of inhuman actions that seems to have spread from Europe in the first half of this century to the Middle East in the second half, bringing so much death and suffering with it. More immediately productive for Americans, we think, is to work for a solution. Israeli Palestinian peace with justice can be brokered right here in Washington, DC, when Americans insist that their representatives in Congress, and their president, work together to stop subsidizing racism, religious radicalism, and resulting violations of international law and human rights in the Middle East.

Sunni-Shili Differences Do Matter

Peace be upon you. After reading "Sunni Shi'i Schism" (May-June 1991) by Greg Noakes, I concluded that Brother Noakes has been reading the wrong books. Claiming the term "Shi'i, " just like the term "Sunni, " is an adjective modifying and defining "Islam" cannot be further from the truth. The heretical beliefs of the Shi'i concerning the Holy Qur'an, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and his wives and companions, and their concept of Imamate prove their deviation from the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the Sunna. Contrary to Brother Noakes' claims, these differences in belief are of great theological importance.

The Shi'i concept of Imamate, for example, is that they are infallible and share with Allah the power of knowing the unseen. Their late Imam Khomeini summarizes the Imamate concept by: "It is one of the essential beliefs of our Shi'i school that no one can attain the spiritual states of the Imams, not even the angels of the highest rank or messengers of Allah."

Finally, contrary to what was written by Brother Noakes, the Shi'i today have nothing in common with the Fourth Caliph Ali or the companions who supported him against Muawiyyah.

Yazeed A. Al-Kukhayyil, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Our interest is to explain differences, but not to make value judgments. In dealing with letters like yours, we think in the future we'd better request our readers to use quotations with which they agree to explain their own point of view, and not quotations with which they disagree to explain the view of others. We wouldn't cite the works of Adolf Hitler to illustrate "the Christian mind," the works of Meyer Kahane to illustrate "the Jewish mind, " or the Ayatollah Khomeini to illustrate "the Muslim mind. " However, since Washington Report writer Noakes, an American Muslim, has had his say, now you've had yours.

California Assistance

I love your magazine! I tell all my friends to subscribe and pass on my magazines (after reading them from cover to cover). I'm a housewife at home with a small baby so I don't have the financial means to donate big bucks. However, if you would send me some back issues (say 50) I'd like to pass them out at Friday prayers. Seeing is believing, or should I say subscribing. Perhaps this would net you a few more devoted readers.

Audrey Yoon, San Diego, CA

We've sent you unsold newsstand returns of a back issue. When you run out, we'll send you more. Thanks for the donation of your unpaid time and effort. The domestic special interests have the "big bucks, " but we have people like you. We'll put our long-term bets on the people. On this issue of special interest donations, all the PACs, out-of-state donations and "smart money " in the world aren't going to do the members of Congress who betray their own constituents a lick of good. If every member of your church, mosque or synagogue who agrees with you signs a letter asking your congressman, Randy (Duke) Cunningham, why he took $7,700 from proIsrael PACs in his first (1990) election, maybe he'll write back and tell you he won't do it again. If he doesn't respond, you'l1 know whom to work against in 1992.

Cartoon Words

The attached cartoon appeared in our local paper June 2. Someone said, "A picture is worth a thousand words. "I find this cartoon expresses what your magazine has said all along. It was a shock to me that the parent company, Knight Ridder, allowed it to be published.

Carl B. Smith, Gray, GA

Sure we had the first say about incorrigible aid recipients, but isn't it great that Oliphant, Danziger, Toles, Benson and others all have caught up with Middle East realities? We plan to use the Oliphant cartoon you sent in this issue, space permitting. During the nearly 10 years we've published this magazine, many of our "far out" predictions have become history, and some of our most "controversial " opinions have become "conventional wisdom." Stay tuned.

Schwarzkopf's Secret

Since the controlled US press will not tell the US public, I think that the Washington Report should make public in every way possible General Norman Schwarzkopf's assessment of the major stumbling block to Mideast peace. That stumbling block is not having a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli matter, a fair settlement, said the general. It should come as no surprise that the Jewish weekly press of America has ignored this part of the general's remarks/testimony.

Harry W. Hunt, Huddy, KY

The weeklies to which you refer haven't ignored the implications of the general's testimony, however. Fearing that he may be eyeing the Senate seat held by Bob Graham (D-FL), who is up for re-election in 1992, these newspapers, which tell pro-Israel donors where their money is needed, have been singing the praises of Graham. (He had already received $30,750 from pro-Israel PACs for his one previous Senate election campaign in 1988.) You can bet that the thought of "Stormin' Norman, "as Florida's senator, giving a briefing on underlying problems in the Middle East (where he spent part of his youth as the son of a US technical adviser in Iran) would fill Senator Graham's war chest with pro-Israel donations.

It's Not Easy to Subscribe From Morocco

Thank you very much for sending me the Washington Report. It took 19 days to get here. I'll send you the payment as soon as my bank gets permission to send it in dollars! It'll take some time, I know.

I was indeed thrilled to read my first copy. It brought up my morale because one doesn't read such articles in The New York Times or Newsweek for well-known reasons. After the bombing of Iraq, I must say that I was in a state of shock, as were most Arabs. We need more magazines like the Washington Report. We need to see and read about the real Americans, and not the ones that the Zionists have created.

Fauzia Lonkili, Tangier, Morocco

Flattery won't get you everywhere, but it certainly will get you the time needed for your subscription payment to clear the bank. We have several thousand readers overseas by now. Because they pay such an exorbitant subscription price (all of which is consumed by international postage costs), we're especially pleased to hear from them.

Letters to Editors Help

We are inveterate writers of letters to the editor. Normally, we write to our local paper (Wilmington), perhaps one in Cincinnati and one in Dayton. The latter two are the nearest big cities (about 50 miles away). During and after the Gulf war, we felt we had to spread out to a wider audience, so we called the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Columbus Dispatch, and these letters editors said that they would welcome letters from Wilmington despite the distance (200 miles).

As a result, we managed to publish five letters in a period of one month. By spreading out our letters and discussing somewhat different angles of the same topic (the Gulf war), we managed not to give editors the feeling that were inundating them. In fact, some of these papers state that they will not publish more than one letter from the same source in one three-month period.

It does take time, but it shows that individual letter writers can reach wider audiences. We estimate the circulation of these papers to be approximately one million. If 5 percent read our letters, that would be 50,000, approximately the same circulation as the Washington Report, but a much less convinced audience!

We find that these provincial papers seldom fail to print our letters. To appear in The New York Times, the chances are one in thirty. It gets 60,000 letters per year and prints 2,000. Many of these are by establishment figures with name recognition. We would encourage readers of the Washington Report to look at the possibility of writing letters to more than just their local newspapers.

Marjorie and James Young, Wilmington, OH

Middle East Common Market?

The European Common Market is becoming a reality, and a Middle Eastern or Islamic countries common market is overdue. I urge you to cover this subject in your magazine and invite authors you know to write on this subject. The public and those in authority should come to grips with this issue, so that it becomes a reality.

F.J. Mirhij, Greensboro, NC

We'll welcome letters or articles on the possibilities, the pitfalls and the potential.

Do Two States Equal Peace?

Although I have been concerned about the plight of the Palestinians ever since the formation of Israel, I question whether making the West Bank an independent state would solve the problem of bringing lasting peace to the Middle East. In the first place, the West Bank and Gaza are not contiguous areas so that it would be very awkward for them to be made into one country and, even so, it would not be a viable self-sustaining entity. Would not a better solution be to require Israel to become a secular state together with all the rest of Palestine, with a constitution and bill of rights similar to that of the US, under which equal rights would be guaranteed to all and also containing provisions for the repatriation of all the exiled Palestinians? These latter would, of course, be required to give up their arms in order to become citizens of the new secular state of Palestine.

In this modern world there is no more justification for an exclusively Jewish state than there is for an exclusively Islamic, Christian, Hindu or any other kind of state in which only members of one religion are to worship as they choose. While it is true that there are other theocracies in the Middle East, most of the Arab nations have secular governments and all will eventually evolve into democracies. We should, of course, use what influence we have to speed their progress but, in the meantime, we should not be supporting the maintenance of a Jewish theocracy in their midst.

Blanche C. Kerr, Los Angeles, CA

A democratic secular state is what might have happened in Palestine if the US had not twisted arms at the UN in 1947 for a vote to partition Palestine. Like our 1953 intervention in Iran to overthrow a popular government and restore the shah, by thwarting evolution we set in motion an eventual bloody explosion. In our opinion, however, normal evolution in Israel-Palestine will not resume until Muslims, Christians and Jews all feel secure, and that can best be ensured, at least initially, by an Israel and a Palestine at peace with each other.

Canada Complaining

Abdurrahman Bushnaq's letter in the May-June issue ends with a plea for God to guide this magazine in the "struggle against the Zionist evil."

While I sympathize with the resentment felt by Arabs toward the many documented evil acts committed by Zionists, I can only hope that Mr. Bushnaq does not seriously consider Zionist ideology by itself to be a completely and inherently evil phenomenon. If that sentiment is shared by a majority in the Arab world, then the prospect for peace in the Middle East is distressingly slim.

This view about the intrinsic evil of Zionism can only give credibility to the often-repeated statements by Israeli leaders that the ultimate goal of the Arab world is the destruction of the entire state of Israel, not just the liberation of Palestinian lands seized in 1967. (The logical extension of this, of course, is that Israel is perfectly justified in not giving up the occupied territories, since relinquishing those lands would still not satisfy the maximalist demands of the Arabs.)

It should come as no surprise that the most intransigent Arab rejectionists—those who adamantly oppose the compromise solution of an Israeli and a Palestinian state in historic Palestine—are often either Arab leaders trying to divert attention from deplorable domestic conditions, or Arab citizens not living under Israeli occupation. From the safety of their own countries, these armchair revolutionaries can feel comfortable insisting on an all-or-nothing deal, because it is not they but the Palestinians in the occupied territories who will continue to bear the brunt of Israeli brutality.

John Dirlik, Montreal, Canada

We think it would be naive not to acknowledge that most Israelis would support a "greater Israel " if they thought they could get it at no cost. Most Arabs would prefer to see all of Palestine a "democratic secular state", except for those Islamists who would like to see it an Islamic state. The fact that the masses on both sides want as much as they can get, however, doesn't preclude strong leaders on both sides cutting a UN Security Council Resolution 242-based land for-peace deal guaranteed by the US and the Soviet Union. It won't be a settlement made in heaven, but we believe it's the only way to stop the bloodshed That's something we think most supporters of this magazine could live with, and around which all can unite.